


uneasy hangs the head that wears the crown

by seijuro



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Akashi-centric, Character Study, Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2014-09-01
Packaged: 2018-02-15 15:56:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2234844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seijuro/pseuds/seijuro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kings bleed the same as men.</p>
            </blockquote>





	uneasy hangs the head that wears the crown

**Author's Note:**

> very pretentious. more of a warm up than anything, and i ended up writing him way more ruthless than i was aiming for;;; oops
> 
> POSSIBLE suicide trigger warning--not that there's any suicide mentions or any actual suicide, but it could be triggering and better safe than sorry, right?
> 
> planning an aomine-centric companion piece to this, because i really cannot get over how i constantly see them as two sides of the same coin.

Chess. His father had played chess. His father had taught him, had taught him everything he knew and everything he didn't.

Akashi was good at it, good at taking and destroying and seeing everything others didn't. It was easier to see things when all there was to see were black and white pieces on black and white squares. 

Looking at everything in black and white was blinding. 

(It made it easier to pretend, easier to forget, easier to wash things away.)

These people were chess pieces on a board, strings attached to their plastic backs. Sacrifices were necessary for victory. 

And the black and white showed him--Daiki, the rise and fall. He flew, but he used waxen wings, and they had burned up with him. Tetsuya, watching him fly and watching him break. Shadows spoke not to light. 

(Dominoes were black and white, too, and he watched them fall.)

Necessary. Easy. Like breathing, he'd thought once.

( _Easy._ It was easy to look straight ahead when you were running away.)

The crown came with a price. He'd paid it in full, and so had they.

(Shintarou, Ryouta, Atsushi, Satsuki, Daiki, Tetsuya--he'd seen them together often, laughing about something after practice. Ryouta was being particularly suffering. Daiki was joining him.

There was an ugly feeling, then, poison thrumming through his veins. It would have been nice to pluck it right out, but he was certain it would unravel him. He was far too good at pulling things apart at the seams.

 _Easy._ It was easy not to scream when you were already struggling enough to breathe.)

And he'd wondered, once or twice: would he have stopped it?  _  
_

(It was easy to take when there was nothing to give.)

He'd pulled at their wings like puppet strings, and in the end, they strangled him.

(It was easier to push people away than to pull them in.)

Chess. His father had taught him chess, but this was not chess. This was not a game, and he was more of a pawn with a crown than a king. 

(But there had never,  _ever_ been a difference to begin with, he knew.)

The throne at the top was a lonely place, but it was the only place he'd ever belonged, and he thought about falling just as often as he thought about jumping.


End file.
